The most recommended insect books

Bug Boys started as (award-winning) self-pubbed minicomics and made their way to gloriously full-color graphic novels. Rhino-B and Stag-B are adorable bugs who explore the forest, escape terrifying giants, and dive deep into the world under our feet (and ponder if there are even more worlds out there).

The collected stories (I really have a thing for that, it seems) span from sweet and meditative to temporarily terrifying to high fantasy, and the colors by Lyle Lynde match the moods along the way. This whole series is so rad and kind.

This gorgeous book is set like a stage and populated with a variety of bugs who speak a language invented by the author. Within the short space between the covers, our cast experiences the full gamut of life, death, villainy, victory, nature, building, community, beauty, growth, decay, loss, hope, and transformation – an amazing feat! While the invented language is full of delightfully silly words, every sentence can be accurately decoded by tracking how individual words and phrases are reused and by looking for context clues. A sampling of the nonsense you’ll find: “Du kimma plonk?” “Iz unk gladenboot.” “Booby voobeck!”

My son picked this up at the library on a whim, and we were both surprised at how witty and fun it was. It’s filled with fun sounds, rhyming words, silly creatures, and a funny, unexpected ending. My son loves making the sound effects and laughs every time we read it.

Like Rachel Carson in Silent Spring,1962, Goulson warns of the catastrophic declines in insects and the resulting threat to all life on Earth. He quotes biologist E O Wilson: "If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos."

Even if we're incapable of valuing wild creatures for themselves and not merely for how they serve us as pollinators or ecosystem managers, we're taking huge risks with our careless approach to herbicides and pesticides; our drive for endless crops and increased meat production leads to devastation for the natural world.

Yes, it's grim, but Goulson, an engaging writer, intersperses the text with descriptions of particularly unusual and endearing insects to lighten the tone - and he also outlines how we can do better. An important and timely book.

In this story, two worms fall in love with each other. When they decide to get married, their friends ask who will wear the dress and who will wear the tux. In the end, it doesn’t matter what they wear, because worm loves worm.

I love the simple, noncomplicated theme that no matter who you want to spend your life with, love is love. The illustrations are delightful and charming. 

Technically, Beetle Boy is not told from an animal’s POV (or even a beetle’s POV for that matter), but an important part of the main human character’s journey is that he learns how to understand what the beetles are saying. Young people have a special ability to communicate with animals, and because you are reading this, it is highly likely you are one of those. So, please enjoy this super fun, heartwarming tale, and be encouraged that if you think you understand animals—you probably do. Conversely, if you think I am ridiculous, then I suggest you learn how to listen to animals and minibeasts as soon as possible. You don’t want to become one of those adults Roald Dhal calls “stodgy” now do you?

Just like me, Eddie loves books. Unlike me, Eddie is a shiny, green bug. (Clearly, I need to get over my bias against books including talking creatures!) Linda Bailey told this story so vividly that I soon became Eddie, painstakingly making my way across the ginormous landscape inside the school. How on earth could a tiny bug save his aunt, nevermind an entire school library? You’ll have to read the book to find out, but I can tell you that readers finish this story feeling like we can do anything we set our minds to!

Moths are the underdogs of the animal kingdom – unfairly castigated as pests and associated with evil darkness.

I wrote my book to set the story straight. Decades earlier, publisher P.B.M. Allan had done these insects a considerable service, showcasing Britain’s remarkable moths and relating, in a jocular fashion, his escapades across Britain to see many of them.

Reading his book, I came to appreciate quite what diversity of moths Britain harbours – and was inspired by his enthusiasm to go out and see them for myself. The moth hunter’s gossip is long out of print, but can often be tracked down at second-hand retailers. 

I'm an ant researcher, so perhaps it's not surprising that I'm recommending an ant book. But this book is less about the short essays, which do a great job of describing the biology of these social animals, and more about the photos. Most people overlook ants because they are so tiny, but when you enlarge them, as in this book, they show their real beauty. When I received my copy, I was amazed and I have seen many ants up close. But the sheer variety of morphological structures, faces, and yes, even colors. Not all ants are black or red, there are even ants that shimmer in all the colors of the rainbow.

We notice mostly ant workers, but in this book also the males are represented, and they often look out-worldly, so not at all like we imagine ants. A book that shows the aesthetics of these social animals… show more.

Social insects live in close communities, often of several thousand individuals. We often imagine the animals as small robots that perform their tasks as if automated. But this is far from the case. Honeybees are models for the study of learning and can also make complex decisions based on previous experience. However, it becomes particularly difficult when all the animals of a hive have to agree. And bees of a swarm have this difficult task ahead of them when they are looking for real estate. They inspect the nesting opportunities in the surroundings and advertise them in the swarm.

But how do these social insects make their collective decisions? About this question goes the book, written by an expert in the field, in an exciting and easy-to-understand manner. It turns out that the animals actually listen to many opinions and vote. Who wants to know more about honeybee democracy, read… show more.